Last week Han from the 1CGS team promised us a “month of surprises” which can mean quite a few different things but this week it meant giving us a closer look at the awards and immersive newspaper articles behind the Career mode. Also… the La-5FN!

Newspapers and awards

This week we got a good look at the new Career mode’s awards and newspaper features. Newspaper’s seem like a trivial afterthought but these two features together go a long way towards making the Career mode seem more immersive and make you feel part of the wider conflict.

Now, not only will you have a pilot, a squadron and a regular base to fly from but you’ll be competing with fellow aces to rank on the scoreboard. This is something you’ll see in a column while reading the newspaper. Ace kill totals are historical to the date which is quite an accomplishment too!

There are also awards that have historical basis. While the original Campaign mode is lacking in this area, the new Career mode appears not to be. Awards are historically oriented and are typical to the pilot experience – including monetary awards and trophies.

As always, the artist team at 1CGS has outdone themselves with artwork that is crisp, clear, and clean and beautifully representative of the real examples.

I’m still waiting for this new Career mode to arrive before I can really dig into it and give you my thoughts on how this all works in practice. It certainly does look like 1CGS is doing their best to make IL-2 have an excellent single player experience – one that is immersive and dripping with history. I can’t wait to try it out!

Enter the La-5FN

This week we get a good look at a work in progress La-5FN. You might have noticed that the screenshots released today indicate that its already in-game and flying around and you’d be right. This is certainly a surprise as it was only weeks ago that we learned that the aircraft was even a possibility. Evidently its already quite advanced!

Han goes on to say,

…we have its exterior 3D model almost ready. The work on its cockpit will start next week and its flight model development will follow a bit later.

With the Yak-7B, P-39L-1 and A-20B already in the flight model workshop we’ll have to wait a few months still before any chances of flying the La-5FN become likely. I’m guessing it’ll be December or January before the La-5FN is ready for pilots to fly although you never know with 1CGS as they constantly surprise.

Read the whole update right here!

Image Sources: 1CGS IL-2 website